Kanye West is set to unveil his first ever opera later this month.
Nebuchadnezzar: A Kanye West Opera will be staged at the Hollywood Bowl on November 24th and was announced by the rapper on Twitter. The opera is named after the Babylonian king and is being directed by performance artist Vanessa Beecroft. It will include music from regular performers from his Sunday Service group alongside Peter Collins & Infinities Song.
The rapper alluded to the project during his recent interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe. West drew comparisons between himself and Nebuchadnezzar during the lengthy chat, telling the DJ “(God) is saying, ‘Let me take this Nebuchadnezzar-type character’ – Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, and he looked at his entire kingdom and said, ‘I did this’”. He added “I stood on the top of the mountain talking about Yeezus, saying, ‘I’m a God’ – I had a guy dressed as Jesus.”
The announcement comes just a few weeks after the release of his much-delayed ninth record Jesus is King, his first gospel album. He also performed tracks from the album at Harris County jail over the weekend, reducing several inmates to tears. He told televangelist Joel Osteen “I know that God’s been calling me for a long time and the devil’s been distracting me for a long time”, saying “now the greatest artist that God has ever created is now working for him”.
Jesus is King saw the artist top the Gospel Albums chart in the US, with songs from it taking up the entire top 11 of the Hot Gospel Songs list. He recently released the video for UK top ten single ‘Follow God’, which also starred his father and included the message “it took me 42 years to realize that my dad was my best friend”.
